The present Israeli government has done OK on defense and security, by being cautious and circumspect and avoiding going to war too often, which can't be said about their predecessors. It has also had a successful fiscal and macroeconomic run, avoiding us a major economic crisis. They're not getting my vote, however, since this has come at the cost of impoverishing the working man and the middle class. Food prices are at an all-time high, and taxes are also creeping up. Individual freedoms are at an all-time low, with traffic congestion and severe denial of freedom of movement the main issue. The justice system has long been a place where justice can't be found unless you're really rich, and law enforcement is mostly non-existent when it comes to the protection of ordinary citizens from common crime, traffic offenses, and random street violence. The police seems to concentrate mostly on terrorizing high-school kids experiencing with whatever, and law-abiding men undergoing divorce proceedings these days, although they're still doing a good job with preventing terror attacks. The Likoud ploutocrats are also endangering our fragile semi-arid environment, mostly by privatizing and concrete-coating public areas. There is a housing crisis, as there has always been, and the plans to build up in the "E1" areas are an insult to the common man, who would like nothing better than to be able to afford a home in a place where jobs can also be found. This is not the case with the Jerusalem Belt, and, as I said before, commuting has become an unsufferable, and expensive ordeal.

I wanted to vote for the Socialists since some of them apppear to genuinely care for people like myself, but the presence of Peace Now's Y. Oppenheimer on their list and my sensitive stomach mean that this has slim chances of happening. I may settle for the Green Leaf Libertarians, but there's also plenty of time for me to purchase some fishing gear and forgo Democracy on this day, which is also my birthday, incidentally.

"In Egypt the elected Moslem Brotherhood government has become enormously unpopular because it attempted to neutralize the judiciary dominated by the previous dictatorship by simply declaring that the president could ignore the court rulings that stopped the government from operating. The judges are largely bought and paid for by the corrupt dictatorship, which still has the cash and control of the military to thwart efforts by the new government to deal with the pervasive corruption and misrule. This was seen as a problem from the very beginning, but many Egyptians (and foreigners) believed it would somehow magically disappear. "

Doesn't one have to conclude the Egyptian reformers had no choice but to accept the risk that it wouldn't disappear?